RMT confirms new strike dates in Merseyrail Guards' dispute as company fail to deliver on key issue of train dispatch

RAIL UNION RMT today confirmed a new batch of strike dates in the long-running guards’ and safety dispute on Merseyrail as the company has failed to deliver on the crucial issue of a safe method of train dispatch.

As a result, the union’s executive believes that at this stage we have no alternative but to instruct our Merseyrail members not to book on for duty on the following dates:

“After 15 months of difficult negotiations with Merseyrail at ACAS we have reached a point where our members feel so strongly that the proposed method of dispatch for the new trains is a less safe option that they are prepared to go back to the picket lines and demand an operational role that applies to all Merseyrail stations that the new trains call at.

“Crucially the train drivers take the same view that the Guard should be responsible for the safe dispatch of the train as they are now. It is these very Guards and Drivers that operate the trains day in and day out and if they are saying that they can’t accept the proposed method of operation then they must be listened to.”